To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. How I Did Last Week Write between 10,000 and 14,000 words this week. Nailed it. 19K written this week. Write the Week 3 Pep Talk for NaNoBoston, the Boston region for NaNoWriMo   Done! Continue to wake up at 4 and out the door by 5.30 the latest. Meh... a little dicey there. Continue taking the stairs at the day job. Yep. I'm surprised I haven't died from all the stairs yet. My Goals for This Week Write about 10K more on The SNI. Leave the house by 5.30 during the week. Continue to take the stairs at work. Biggest Challenge I Faced This Week The day job. There, I said it. Something I Love About My WIP That I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. My world buildin...

To keep myself on task with everything I have to do outside of my day job, I've started Accountability Monday where I'll share my successes and failures from the past week and my goals for the upcoming one. If you too need something to keep yourself honest, feel free to join in. So, it's November. It's NaNoWriMo . I'm lucky I know my name right now. I'm about 18,000 words into the SNI and I have a whole lot of work in store for Future Alicia, which you will undoubtedly hear about down the road when I talk about how Past Alicia did no prep work at all. How I Did Last Week   Well, last week I had no goals because I had no post. So let's look at goals from a few weeks ago: Send out SFLN to the two agents I promised it to. DONE Complete my plotting and preplanning for The SNI. Meh, I got *some* done. Most of NaNo is being pantsed this year. Stretch goal--> Exercise. I've been taking the stairs at the day job for the last week because we mo...

Dear Blog, I know. Today's supposed to be Accountability Monday, but it's NaNoWriMo time and I forgot to pre-game the post. I'll be back next week with an update. My goal for this week is to hit 12,000 words. Cross all the things. Xoxo, Alicia

Oh god, y'all are thinking, not another NaNoWriMo post. It's December for chrissakes. I know and I'm sorry, but we'll all get through this together. Every year, NaNoWriMo gets a lot of flack, saying that it enables people who fashion themselves as writers when they're really not. I disagree, but that's a subject for a different day. Today is all about why I always go back to NaNoWriMo*. It's so easy to get stuck on the revision/editing wheel that anyone can get so sucked into it that you can go two years without writing anything new. NaNoWriMo guarantees me that at least once a year I'll create a new novel-length work, which is important since I want to have a writing career. With this in mind, I use NaNoWriMo to experiment. Whether it's planning techniques or story structure, I make sure that I try something new each year. This is how I learned I was a plotter and that plotcards are what works best. If it wasn't for this, I would never ...

Today's post is super-late and I'm sorry about that. Lots of exciting things have been happening to Yours Truly as of late and since I don't want to jinx anything, that's as much as I can write.   The materials I need when I sit down to write vary depending on project, so this topic is challenging. Since it's November and I completed my NaNo novel this week, I'll talk about what I needed for drafting Scenes From Last Night. Zero distractions. With both Hubby unemployed, he's always home so I decided I wouldn't be. Thankfully my dad hooked me up with a temporary office where I holed myself up for eight hours a day over the last two weeks.  Caffeine. I'd be lying if this doesn't show up as needed for every project, but when my brain goes "mumble mumble," the caffeine is super important. The caffeine of choice is usually Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. Music. Another item that shows up all the time, I constantly listen to music whi...

I write today's Friday Fives prompt several days in advance from the discomfort of the veterinary emergency room where The White One has caused me and Hubby too much stress in a small amount of time*.  With all this kitty (not to mention Alicia) drama, I am painfully behind my NaNoWriMo word count and each setback like this one is enough for me to tear out all my hair. Right now I just want to get it done and retire into an afghan-making frenzy**. If only there were a way to get this done in an efficiently painless way. There is.

The suggested word count to beat NaNoWriMo is 1,667 words per day, every day. November is a short month. If you're in the US, it's even shorter because of things like Thanksgiving and Black Friday. With several days out of commission, you need to be super-focused when it comes to writing and front load your word count. I understand my methods won't work for everyone in The Lurkdom. I'm lucky in having way too much free time, no children, and a husband that's totally on board with me hiding away with a computer and doing nothing else. During the first week of NaNoWriMo, I like to exceed the daily word count goals . Since you're in the honeymoon phase of writing anyway, this shouldn't be difficult. Instead of a daily goal of 1,667 words, round it up to 2,000. Even that small of a bump, gives you five free days. The first few days of NaNoWriMo, I aim to double my daily word count so that way I have more days to play with in case there's a day where my...

You should know what you're writing about by now if you're doing NaNoWriMo. If you don't, then I know what you're doing this weekend and may I suggest you read my posts on plotcards and character/setting deets ? Another tool that I can't live without while prewriting is the story bible. Most writers have a version of this whether it's a bunch of scrawled notes or a highly detailed folder with charts and Word documents. A story bible is a one-stop shop for all of your story related items: plot, characters, settings, notes, pictures, and whatever else applies. Creating a story bible isn't a lot of work. Mine is modeled after an article I read on XtremeLife a few years ago. (The original link is dead, but you can access an archived version here .) At heart, I'm a paper and pen girl and that's how my story bibles come out. For this NaNo, I used my very awesome Circa notebook , which made it much easier for me to move sections around. If you follo...

One week from today will be NaNoWriMo and I completed my preparation last night. My plotcards are written and organized. My characters and settings are in decent shape. By decent I mean enough has been determined to crank out a first draft. That's the key with character and setting: you have to have enough to make it work. Character Detail For years, I subscribed to the character sheet* level of detail where I had to know everything about their schooling from preschool on up, their allergies, favorite pair of earrings, etc. Filling out these multi-page sheets would take up a lot of my time. My first idea for NaNo this year got derailed by these character sheets too. The problem was that with the focus on creating all of this information about my character so they'd be more three dimensional, I was losing out on these things occurring organically through my writing. Talk about a light bulb moment. When you pare your character development to the bare minimum, your inne...

It's that time of year, not of foliage or way-too-soon Christmas decorations, but of words and words and words. That's right. It's NaNoWriMo time. If you're new on the block, this weird word stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Sounds crazy, right? To quote the Cheshire Cat, "We're all mad here." In order to successfully complete NaNoWriMo, you need an attack plan. There are many ways to achieve this, but since this is my blog real estate, I'm going to share with you what works for me. Plotcards involve index cards and ideas for scenes. If you're a pantser, this is the closest plot method to what you're used to. I first learned about how to use them through Holly Lisle ,* but have modified the process since. Going into the plotcards, you will need to know who your characters are. They don't need to be fleshed out yet, but you should know the basics: name, sex, story role (p...

Remember how I said I was going to do some writing for fun? Um, apparently that means participating in Camp NaNoWriMo . What the hell are you talking about? Camp NaNoWriMo is the summer version of NaNoWriMo. In fact, it's organized by the same people. There are two sessions you can choose to participate in, just like real camp. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. But I'm not stressing about this as much as I do in November. This is summer. I'm still hardwired to think of July and August as vacation time. So I will not stress. I have an outline that has no tension and a totally sagging middle, but that's okay because I'm doing this for fun. If I win it, cool. If I don't, also cool. You're insane. You know that, right? Of course. ... Besides, look at the pretty web badge with its trees and its greeny goodness. How I can I resist? The timing of this is awesome as I plan to do a lot of this during my stay in The Real World house. So the month o...

I should probably let you all in on a not-so-secret secret: I'm anti-social. This totally contradicts the amount of time I spend on the Twitters and here, but sometimes that's how I roll. Anyway. Listing 5 writing communities shouldn't be too hard. Twitter . This is where I've made a lot of my writing connections. The #amediting and #amwriting hashtags are a great way to remind you you're not like Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. And since I'm chained at a desk all day*, this is a good thing. NaNoWriMo . The Boston WriMos have been awesome. It's well past November and I still meet up with them weekly for write ins. We'll overlook the fact that most of the time I'm so busy busting a gut that writing might not get done. Weekend of Awesome . I really can't stress enough how fantastic this weekend was and how awesome the ladies in it are. They've become my personalized writing community. I realize how lucky I am. SCBWI . Without SC...

Back in college, I acted*. Every winter break I would begin the work I would need to do for whatever bit part I was casted as in whatever Shakespeare production the director decided on. Once the semester started, I'd be eyes deep in rehearsal and any other theatre related class was required for that production** for three months; this didn't include all regularly scheduled classes. Credit Once the production came and went, and I recovered from my four day coma and predictable immune system collapse, I would say "I have so much free time that I have no clue what to do." NaNoWriMo is kinda like that. Chances are you've recovered from the November writing and food coma and are now wondering what to do with this first NaNo-free weekend, writing-wise. Whatever you do, don't query your 2010 project. Just. Don't. As agent Scott Eagan said , it needs a lot of work. Instead of mail-bombing every agent you can find, let your manuscript sit. This is the mo...

This is it, kids: the final weekend to play catch up on your NaNoWriMo word count. Even if you're wicked behind, it can be done*. Without any more bullshit, I present to you... Four For Friday: Win NaNoWriMo Edition Word sprints. This may sound lame to some, or as Hubby calls it "extremely nerdy," but sprints are a great way to up your word count. By using a time or an online stopwatch, you can challenge yourself to beating your personal best in 15 and 30 minute writing sprints**. Writing Marathon. The Boston region already did their 24 hour traveling write in, but that doesn't mean you can't do your own. Load up on the caffeine and set up a good playlist and write until dawn breaks again. Alcohol. Not only can you become a raging jackass, you can push out that shitty draft in record time. Since boozing it up lowers your inhibitions, it also silences your internal editor***. Excessive and needless dialogue. There's nothing that fills up space more than di...

Everyone by now knows about NaNoWriMo, and, while having a working knowledge of what it is, you still might not know what it is. Miranda, for example, doesn't know*. NaNoWriMo Is... ...a great way to get yourself into the habit of writing daily. Even if you only manage 10 minutes each day, the important thing is the habit. ...helpful in completing that shitty first draft . It's a right of passage. Trust me, I'm a non-professional. ...useful in figuring out your backstory. A lot of times you need to know where you came from before you know where you're going. What better way to make that word count than writing backstory? ...a tool that can shut off your internal editor. Only if you choose. I know plenty of people who keep their editor on at all times. If I did, I'd be somewhere around 1,000 words. makes you accountable and also motivates! In order to win, you need to complete at least 50 thousand words. You have to verify them. If you have other friends on...

After an extremely shaky start, I'm *just* ahead of my writing schedule at fourteen thousand and something words. This one is more difficult to create as opposed to it's precursor, but I'm not focusing on that today. Today is all about WriMo fuel. In order to push through your first draft*, your brain to needs to be firing on all cylinders. If it's not, bad things happen: you write "SOMETHING IMPORTANT HAPPENS HERE," you decide watching a marathon of Cake Boss is a high priority, or you have narcoleptic naps**. These things shouldn't happen daily. Once and a while, yes, but if you find these more appealing than focusing on the task at hand, maybe you need something to jolt you into progress. Without further to do, I present... The Eater's Guide to NaNoWriMo Caffeine . It IS your best friend for November. It keeps your going much later than you would on just water or herbal tea alone. Energy drinks fall into this category too. Chug one of those...

We've changed calendar pages, which only means it's now November and it's NaNoWriMo time! What does this mean for you? Today I'm taking a blog holiday to make sure that I get as much writing in as possible*. November marks the start of the busy season for me (which doesn't end until March) and this year isn't any exception. Hubby and I actually have Thanksgiving plans, a friend from NJ is coming up for a weekend, and one of the besties is having her second child. So yeah, the need to crank the words out is pretty hardcore right now. What does this mean for the blog schedule?  Nothing. I've now hit a year of solid blogging, which surprises the hell out of me. Is there anything specific I should expect from you? A lot of caffeinated rambling and a lot of quick posts since the 9-5 job is consistently kicking my ass these days. I have some ideas for blog entries and hope to actually manage writing them. If I was smart, I would have spent the entire we...

Last night I completed my 50,000th word on my NaNoWriMo project - a yet to be titled urban fantasy. A lot of people would be jumping up and down at this point, but I'm keeping myself reserved for two big reasons: 1) I have at least 20,000 more words to go and 2) I know this is only the shitty first draft. "But Alicia," you're thinking, "you're being too hard on yourself." Believe me - I'm not. A shitty first draft is a novel's right of passage. That initial version that you started on the diner napkin? Shitty first draft. The paragraph from a writing exercise? Shitty first draft. The one that your dog dragged it's ass on? Shitty. First. Draft. Author Anne Lamott has a whole chapter dedicated to this in her book, Bird by Bird. (You haven't read it yet? Pick it up. Now .) In the chapter, she says: "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something - anything - d...

This post started to be about music, but that one will come later in the week. After I compile my playlist for the yet to be titled novel. Yesterday I went to a meet and greet for people participating in NaNoWriMo in the Boston area. With the exception of a writer's conference, it was the largest group of writers I have seen in one room. About 30. Imagine having that many writers together all in the planning stages of a novel that they're going to write the following week. Sound intimidating to you? To me, it was comforting. And from the amount of people who do this yearly, a lot of people think the same. Now that there are 6 days until launch, I'm beginning to stress. There is still a lot of prewriting that needs to be done. Character sketches, plot point tweaking, research - all things I never do. I know that I'm not the only one feeling this odd self-inflicted pressure. November also marks the beginning of social season hell. If the two women I sat with during yester...